For WoW refugees. What was not announced?

[Penthea]

I have one question for this: which one has the better housing system? Square or Blizzard?

It's not hard to have a better housing system than a game that literally doesn't have one.

That being said while WoW garrisons were very flawed and were not housing at all (for non WoW players it was basically a fort with very little customisation, you didn't even have your own bed) they did ensure every player could have one on every single character. No one had to worry about someone else getting one first. They at least got that much right.

[TheMightyMollusk]

It's not hard to have a better housing system than a game that literally doesn't have one.

That being said while WoW garrisons were very flawed and were not housing at all (for non WoW players it was basically a fort with very little customisation, you didn't even have your own bed) they did ensure every player could have one on every single character. No one had to worry about someone else getting one first. They at least got that much right.

Except that they didn't account for thousands of players all trying to load into an instanced part of the same map at the same time, which made the Warlords launch a massive headache. And then they made garrisons too good, to the point that they had to actively nerf the gold gain from them a few times during Warlords, and then drop it to almost nothing afterwards, in a vain attempt to fight inflation.

They hung a lampshade on it later, when the Mag'har orcs would complain about the Horde leaving abandoned garrisons all over the place.

[Penthea]

Except that they didn't account for thousands of players all trying to load into an instanced part of the same map at the same time, which made the Warlords launch a massive headache.

I remember that very well but I also remember the phasing in WoD launch had issues in general, not only with garrisons. It just was worse at garrisons because you had to keep going back to that place during the lvling process. But that was a temporary issue. FFXIV's issue with housing availability has sadly been going on for several years. Can't be compared to the short time of teething issues of expansion launches.

That being said WoD as a whole was a huge mess but that's another conversation altogether.

And then they made garrisons too good, to the point that they had to actively nerf the gold gain from them a few times during Warlords, and then drop it to almost nothing afterwards, in a vain attempt to fight inflation.

Ah they were such a good idea on paper but the execution was really bad. It was poorly balanced and due to it having such little customisation there was no reason to visit another player's garrison unless it had a combat event. Everyone's garrison looked the same. It ended up being a super anti-social feature that had too much going on and most of it wasn't fun. That it was mandatory for character progression made it even worse. Very few actually liked it, but most did love the idea of it when it was first teased at Blizzcon. Such a disappointment.

I just used garrisons as an example because even though they were terrible, Blizzard at least made them available to everyone. No issues with population and availability. Something FFXIV housing sorely needs.

[linayar]

That being said while WoW garrisons were very flawed and were not housing at all (for non WoW players it was basically a fort with very little customisation, you didn't even have your own bed) they did ensure every player could have one on every single character. No one had to worry about someone else getting one first. They at least got that much right.

To be fair, FFXIV still have apartments.

That said, garrison is just too different from normal housing as it seems to have more direct gameplay implications unlike regular housing.

[LisSquid]

To be fair, FFXIV still have apartments.

That said, garrison is just too different from normal housing as it seems to have more direct gameplay implications unlike regular housing.

I honestly would welcome the new 14 farm to be an expansion on the Garrison system. I "farm" anyway via retainers. I would love to have my fishing retainer to have a little station, botanist and miner alike. The garrison sucked because it took the job of crafting away from those sub skills. FF14 has fully fleshed crafting jobs, and if designed well, I think a garrison like feature could mesh really well.